Texas has become the first state to rate preschools, day-care centers and Head Start programs on how well they prepare children for kindergarten.

State officials hope the new School Readiness Certification System will transform a parent’s search for a good preschool from a game of chance into more of a science. The system was launched under an education law sponsored by state Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo.

The goal is to improve teaching in public and private pre-kindergarten programs and boost the odds that children will enter kindergarten ready to learn…

The certification system tracks children from preschool to kindergarten. It then uses kindergartners’ scores on reading and social skills tests to determine whether the pre-kindergarten classrooms they were in the year before prepared them…

Children unprepared

Children should come into kindergarten able to identify some letters of the alphabet and read basic words, such as “cat,” Dr. Landry said. They also should get along with other children and follow directions.

In Dallas, educators say too many children show up for kindergarten never having picked up a pencil…

Most children under 5 are in day care, which is why those programs are included in the new system. But many day-care centers have low standards and poor employee pay…

“There’s a lot of disparity,” Ms. Hoff said. “It’s pretty frightening when you know how much happens in terms of brain development in those first five years, and you know what the system is currently like.” …

While the program is voluntary, Dr. Landry predicts that most preschool, day-care and Head Start programs will apply for certification of their classrooms if enough parents start looking for seals of approval…

Source: Dallas Morning News, TX
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